Conventional facsimile (fax) technology has been a successful means to transmit documents electronically. However, with the emergence of data networks, the integration of conventional fax technology with data networks has changed the landscape of fax services. Particularly, a fax which was typically communicated exclusively via the circuit-switched Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”) is now commonly communicated via portions of both the PSTN and packet-switched data networks. Additionally, new network-based fax services are available which permit a user to originate a fax message to be delivered from various types of clients connected to packet-switched data networks. As network-based fax services are adopted by more and more users, it may become common that a party that subscribes to a network-based fax service transmits a fax to another party that also subscribes to the same network-based fax service. In other words, as network-based fax services become more and more popular, there is an increased likelihood that both originating and destination parties of a fax would be customers of a same network-based fax service.
Generally, a network-based fax service may be implemented by a server including packet- and circuit-switched interface circuits, as well as hardware and associated software for converting electronic documents for users. When an electronic document arrives at the server for delivery as a fax, the server may convert the document into a format suitable for transmission over the PSTN. The fax server may then transmit the converted document over the PSTN via circuit-switched interface circuits and/or an associated gateway. For a fax arriving at the server, the server may identify a destination account associated with the arriving fax, convert the incoming fax into a format suitable for delivery to the destination account, and store the converted document for retrieval over the packet-switched network.
Between two customers that both subscribe to the same network-based fax service, it would be preferable to deliver a fax without relying upon the PSTN. In this case, costs associated with delivery of the fax may be reduced, because the PSTN is not used. It is noted that the network-based service may generally incur a cost from a telephone company or other entity for each fax delivered using the PSTN. However, for reasons discussed in further detail below, it may be undesirable for customers to be put on notice that the network-based fax service saves costs with respect to delivery of fax messages.
A network-based fax service that accounts for the above-described factors and conditions would be desirable.